propagate their colour)
when they are ready to drop, this only omitted, that they would first be
freed from their tenacious and glutinous mucilage by being wash'd, and a
little bruised, then dry'd with a cloath; or else bury them as you do
the yew and hipps; and let our forester receive this for no common
secret, and take notice of the effect: If you will sow them in the
berry, keep them in dry sand till March; remove them also after three or
four years; but if you plant the sets (which is likewise a commendable
way, and the woods will furnish enough) place'em northwards, as they do
quick. Of this, might there living pales and enclosures be made, (such
as the Right Honourable my Lord Dacres, somewhere in Sussex, has a park
almost environ'd with, able to keep in any game, as I am credibly
inform'd) and cut into square hedges, it becomes impenetrable, and will
thrive in hottest, as well as the coldest places. I have seen hedges, or
if you will, stout walls of holly, 20 foot in height, kept upright, and
the gilded sort budded low, and in 2 or 3 places one above another,
shorn and fashion'd into columns and pilasters, architectonially shap'd,
and at due distance; than which nothing can possibly be more pleasant,
the berry adorning the intercolumniations, with the scarlet festoons and
_encarpa_. Of this noble tree one may take thousands of them four inches
long, out of the woods (amongst the fall'n leaves whereof, they sow
themselves) and so plant them; but this should be before the cattle
begin to crop them, especially sheep, who are greedy of them when
tender: Stick them into the ground in a moist season, Spring, or early
Autumn; especially the Spring, shaded (if it prove too hot and
scorching) till they begin to shoot of themselves, and in very sharp
weather, and during our eastern _etesians_, cover'd with dry straw or
haume; and if any of them seem to perish, cut it close, and you shall
soon see it revive. Of these seedlings, and by this culture, I have
rais'd plants and hedges full four foot high in four years: The lustier
and bigger the sets are, the better, and if you can procure such as are
a thumbs-breadth thick, they will soon furnish into an hedge. At
Dengeness in Kent, they grow naturally amongst the very beach and
pibbles; but if your ground be stiff, loosen it with a little fine
gravel: This rare hedge (the boast of my villa) was planted upon a
burning gravel, expos'd to the meridian sun; for it refuses not almo